Our SharpevilleIngrid de Kok

Apple Inc.

1st Edition

.........................................................................................Context 3

...............................................................................Ingrid de Kok 6

............................................................................Our Sharpeville 7

...............................................................................Initial Activity 9

....................................................................S.M.I.L.E. Analysis 10

..................................................Sample Exam Question Part A 24

................................................................................Comparison 25

................................................Sample Exam Question - Part B 25

ContextSouth Africa and Apartheid

From 1948 until 1994, South Africa was governed under a system called apartheid. This was a highly racist method of government in which b l a c k S o u t h A f r i c a n s w e r e systematically discriminated against. by the white minority.

For example:

- Black South Africans were not allowed to vote.

- Races lived separately, with black people not able to live alongside white people. Most black South Africans lived in ‘townships,’ which were effectively slum areas that received hardly any government money.

- Black and white South Africans were forbidden from marrying one another.

- Black and white South Africans had to attend different schools, leisure centres, universities and hospitals.

- The ‘Bantu Education Act’ created a separate system of education for black people, which was designed to prepare them for lives as labourers.

This picture is from 1989 - only a few years before you were born.

There were different universities for white people, Indian people, ‘coloured’ (mixed race) people and black people.

- The ‘pass laws’ prevented black people from moving freely around South Africa and made them carry identity documents.

- Thousands of black South Africans were arrested for protesting, and many died in police jails following torture.

The ANC and the Sharpeville Massacre

The ‘pass laws’ were some of the most hated instruments of the apartheid government. Under the pass laws:

- All black men had to carry an identity card at all times when they were outside their compound or township.

- The pass gave them limited rights to move around ‘white’ South Africa.

- The government could decide where black people could go and how long they could remain there.

- Any white person (even a child) could demand that a black man show this ‘pass.’

In 1960, the government extended the pass laws to include black women as well as black men. This was met wi th outrage, and the African National Congress (ANC) decided to launch a protest campaign against the hated pass laws. A rival

South African women protesting against the pass laws.

protest movement, the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), also planned campaigns for March 1960.

On 21 March 1960, between 5,000 and 7,000 black people turned up to peacefully protest in the township of Sharpeville in Gauteng province. Over the day, more and more people came, and the mood changed, w i t h c l a s h e s b e t w e e n protestors and the police beginning at about 1pm.

Whilst the exact chain of events remains disputed, what

is clear is that shortly after 1pm the police started firing on the crowd, killing 69 people (including 10 children), and injuring nearly 200.

Want to know more about Sharpeville and apartheid?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/audioslideshow/2010/mar/19/southafrica - video report on the 50th anniversary of the massacre.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/apartheid/ - collection of films from the BBC archive that explore apartheid in South Africa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_Ar7WCQtBo - Africa Today video commemorating the massacre and looking at South Africa fifty years on.

Dead bodies following the Sharpeville massacre.

The Sharpeville Massacre sparked protests, riots and violence across South Africa. It marked the start of armed resistance, rather than peaceful resistance, towards the apartheid government on the part of the ANC, which was banned shortly after the massacre. Many white South Africans became frightened by the violent reaction, sparking a further government crackdown on the protest movements. Over 18,000 people were arrested following the massacre.

The actions of the South African government and police were condemned by many across the world, leaving apartheid South Africa increasingly isolated internationally.

Since the ending of apartheid in 1994, the 21st March has been commemorated as Human Rights Day in South Africa.

Ingrid de Kok

Ingrid de Kok is a white South African poet. She was born in 1951 in a gold mining town called Stilfontein, and was nine when the Sharpeville massacre occurred.

As an adult, de Kok moved to Canada before returning to South Africa in 1984.

Writing in post-apartheid South Africa,

much of de Kok’s poetry is about the troubled past and present of her country, and about personal lives under and after the apartheid system.

There are lots of identity politics involved about writing about subjects such as Sharpeville. Why might it be potentially difficult for a white South African poet to write about these subjects?

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Our SharpevilleI was playing hopscotch on the slatewhen the miners roared past in lorries,their arms raised, signals at a crossingtheir chanting foreign and familiar,like the call and answer of road gangsacross the veld, building hot arteriesfrom the heart of the Transvaal mine.

I ran to the gate to watch them pass.And it seemed like a great caravanmoving across the desert to an oasisI remembered from my Sunday school book:olive trees, a deep jade pool,

“Veld” -

men resting in clusters after a long journey,the danger of the mission still around them,and night falling, its silver stars just like the onesyou got for remembering your Bible texts.

Then my grandmother called from behind the front door,her voice a stiff broom over the steps:"Come inside; they do things to little girls."

For it was noon, and there was no jade pool.Instead, a pool of blood that already had a living nameand grew like a shadow as the day lengthened.The dead, buried in voices that reached my gate,the chanting man on ambushed trucks,these were not heroes in my town,but maulers of children,doing things that had to remain nameless.And our Sharpeville was this fearful thingthat might tempt us across the wellswept streets.

If I had turned I would have seenbrocade curtains drawn tightly across sheer net ones,known there were eyes behind both,heard the dogs pacing in the locked yard next door.But, walking backwards, all I felt was shame,at being a girl, at having been found at the gate,at having heard my grandmother lieand at my fear her lie might be true.Walking backwards, called back,I returned to the closed rooms, home.

Ingrid de Kok

Initial Activity

What does de Kok remember about the time of the Sharpeville Massacre? What perspective did she have on the events?

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Why is the poem called “Our Sharpeville?” Who is the “our?”

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How do you think she feels about the event (and her memories of it) decades later?

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What kind of mood is present in the poem?

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S.M.I.L.E. AnalysisRemember, to analyse a poem we need to look at:

-Structure

-Meaning

-Imagery (similes, metaphors, personfication)

-Language

-Effect on the reader

Meaning

“Meaning” is a good place to start when thinking about a poem, as here you can discuss the principal theme(s) of the poem and why you think

the poet has written it.

Meaning - Key points:

• In “Our Sharpeville,” Ingrid de Kok is exploring her personal memories of the Sharpeville Massacre, an infamous event of the apartheid era and one that holds great symbolic importance in the new, post-apartheid South Africa.

• At the time she did not understand what had happened, and she remembers:

• “the miners roared past in lorries” whilst she was playing hopscotch, and she “ran to the gate” to watch these angry black protestors pass.

• she thought the miners en route to the protest looked like characters “from my Sunday school book.”

• that in her white area the black protestors were not heroes, but were people to be scared of, with her family calling them “maulers of children” and her grandmother saying “they do things to little girls.”

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Exploration - Meaning

How do you think de Kok feels about her memories of 1960? Is there, for example, a sense of guilt in this poem?

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Look at the poem below. I have used three different colours to highlight sections.

What are the three different aspects of her memories that de Kok addresses in the poem?

• Feeling a sense of shame, and that “walking backwards, called back, / I returned to the closed rooms, home” - i.e. she walked back into the walled off world of white South Africa.

• From an adult perspective, de Kok now knows the truth of the massacre, about the “pool of blood that already had a living name.” In the poem, she tries to reconcile her troubling personal memories with the wider story of racism and brutality that she and her family were in some sense a part of.

• Throughout the poem, de Kok juxtaposes images of innocence and childhood with images of brutality, showing how her memories of this time are jumbled and fragmentary.

I was playing hopscotch on the slatewhen the miners roared past in lorries,their arms raised, signals at a crossingtheir chanting foreign and familiar,like the call and answer of road gangsacross the veld, building hot arteriesfrom the heart of the Transvaal mine.

I ran to the gate to watch them pass.And it seemed like a great caravanmoving across the desert to an oasisI remembered from my Sunday school book:olive trees, a deep jade pool,men resting in clusters after a long journey,the danger of the mission still around them,and night falling, its silver stars just like the onesyou got for remembering your Bible texts.

Then my grandmother called from behind the front door,her voice a stiff broom over the steps:"Come inside; they do things to little girls."

For it was noon, and there was no jade pool.Instead, a pool of blood that already had a living nameand grew like a shadow as the day lengthened.The dead, buried in voices that reached my gate,the chanting man on ambushed trucks,these were not heroes in my town,but maulers of children,doing things that had to remain nameless.And our Sharpeville was this fearful thingthat might tempt us across the wellswept streets.

If I had turned I would have seenbrocade curtains drawn tightly across sheer net ones,known there were eyes behind both,heard the dogs pacing in the locked yard next door.But, walking backwards, all I felt was shame,at being a girl, at having been found at the gate,at having heard my grandmother lieand at my fear her lie might be true.Walking backwards, called back,I returned to the closed rooms, home.

Ingrid de Kok

The sections in pink contain images of childhood and innocence (for example, de Kok is “playing hopscotch” and believes the men to be characters “from my Sunday school book.”) What role do these images of innocence play in the poem?

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What kind of words does de Kok use to describe the white South Africans living around her when she was a child (hint - look at

the sections coloured in pale green)? Does she seem to have positive emotions about these people and this world or not?

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The sections in red more directly address the violence of the massacre, and at times the adult voice of de Kok (who now knows what actually happened) breaks through into the narrative. What kind of images are used in these parts of the poem?

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At the end of the poem, de Kok writes that

“all I felt was shame,at being a girl, at having been found at the gate,at having heard my grandmother lieand at my fear her lie might be true.”

Why did de Kok remember feeling ashamed as a child for having been at the gate? What do you think might be the significance of this?

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Structure

Structure refers to the way a poem is set out and organised. Here, you write about things like rhyme scheme, length, repetition and the flow of ideas throughout the poem.

Structure - Key Points

• De Kok uses juxtaposition throughout the poem (placing things next to one another) to emphasise the conflict between her innocence and the brutal events that were happening around her.

• e.g. “For it was noon, and there was no jade pool.Instead, a pool of blood that already had a living name”

Here, she juxtaposes an innocent image of a “jade pool” she had learned at Sunday school with the brutal reality, which was a “pool of blood.”

Exploration - Structure

What is the effect of juxtaposition within this poem?

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• There is no consistent structure or stanza form, and little use of rhyme - this could emphasise the confusion of what is happening around her and her inability to make sense of it.

• This short stanza in the middle:

“Then my grandmother called from behind the front door,her voice a stiff broom over the steps:"Come inside; they do things to little girls."

functions to interrupt the child’s innocent dreams about the Sunday school and jolt her into the reality of the day.

Why has de Kok chosen not to use a fixed rhyme scheme or

build up a rhythm in the poem?

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Imagery

This is where you look at techniques such as similes, metaphors and

personification. What pictures has the poet tried to create in your head?

Imagery - Key Points

• The metaphor ‘hot arteries’ is used to describe the roads that were being built. This has a number of connotations:

• ‘Hot arteries’ could suggest anger.• Also, ‘arteries’ pump your blood around your body, just as roads

moved the South African gold around the country. • There could be an implied contrast between the free movement

of goods along the ‘arteries’ of South Africa and the restrictions upon the movement of black men due to the pass laws - this could be the source of the anger that the metaphor also implies.

• She uses an extended simile to compare the miners on the roads to the missionaries that she had learned about in Sunday school:

• “It seemed like a great caravan / moving across the desert to an oasis” - here, the men are compared to religious figures on a mission, like the ones de Kok learned about in Sunday school.

• “and night falling, its silver stars just like the onesyou got for remembering your Bible texts” - here, de Kok compares the sky’s stars to the silver stars she received at Sunday school. This simile emphasises the girl’s innocence at the time of the events.

The use of the Bible is significant. For many Christians, the Bible could signify an ideal state of affairs. The reference to an olive tree (in Christianity, olives are a symbol of peace) reinforces this ideal. As such, the child’s naive use of Biblical imagery draws a contrast between an ideal world and the reality of a violent society in which conflict and discrimination are accepted. This could also underline the hypocrisy of white South Africans such as the grandmother, who teach children the Bible at Sunday school but applaud of violence towards black South Africans.

• “Instead, a pool of blood that already had a living name/ and grew like a shadow as the day lengthened’ - this simile suggests that the Sharpeville massacre cast a ‘shadow’ over the day. This word ‘shadow’ could signify various things:

• She and her community only saw a ‘shadow’ of the true events at Sharpeville.

• It fits in with how the miners are described as shadowy, threatening figures by the white community - the events of the day are similarly shadowy and must not be spoken of (fits in with the idea that “our Sharpeville was this fearful thing.”

• If you wanted to, you could also try and explore any potential racial connotations of the word ‘shadow.’ Do you think there is any implied contrast between black and white South Africans in this simile? If so, what could de Kok intend by this (hint - could you link it to the idea of ‘their chanting foreign and familiar?’

• de Kok describes her grandmother’s voice as a ‘stiff broom’ - this metaphor suggests the grandmother’s prickliness and strictness (see the language section for elaboration on how do Kok describes her own community).

Exploration - Imagery

What is the significance of the Biblical imagery within the poem? What

does it show about, firstly, the girl and her innocence, and secondly, the

reality of South African society?

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Explore the significance of the personification implied in ‘living name.’

What could it mean that the “pool of blood” had a ‘living name?’

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Language

This is where you comment on the language the poet uses. What choices

has he/she made, and why?

Key Points - Language

Exploration - Language

• de Kok uses an oxymoron (look it up - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxymoron) to describe the chanting of the miners - ‘foreign and familiar.’

• This could reflect that although the miners are from South Africa and their chanting is familiar, de Kok’s community see them as “foreign” and threatening.

• She uses language to convey how her community felt threatened by the men - words such as ‘maulers of children,’ ‘fearful thing,’ ‘doing things that had to remain nameless.’

• The language of the poem also illustrates how closed off, insular and frightened de Kok’s community were:

• ‘Well-swept streets’ - note the sibilance here and the relationship between it and the grandmother’s ‘stiff broom.’

• ‘Brocade curtains drawn tightly across sheer net ones’• ‘Eyes behind both’• ‘Dogs pacing in the locked yard next door’

These descriptions give us an image of an unfriendly, secretive and judgmental world.

What is the effect of the oxymoron “their chanting foreign and

familiar?”

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How are black South Africans described by de Kok’s white community?

What kind of attitudes did de Kok’s family hold towards them?

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How does de Kok use language to create a sense of secrecy and

repression within the poem?

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Effect on the reader

Did you like this poem? Why / why not?

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What perspective do you think Ingrid de Kok holds about violence?

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Which other poem could you compare this to from the ‘Clashes and

Collisions’ collection?

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Sample Exam Question Part A

3. a) “Explore how the writer presents the violent events in ‘Our Sharpeville.’

Use evidence from the poem to support your answer. (15 marks).

NB - This question is taken from the summer 2011 exam paper. In the exam, you would have about 30 minutes to complete this question.

Write an answer to this question and email it to me.

ComparisonOne poem you could compare this two would be ‘Belfast Confetti’ by Ciaran Carson (indeed, this was the suggested poem on the 2011 exam). Whilst both are about violence between two communities, one gives us an ‘insider’ perspective about being caught up in violence, whilst the other gives us the perspective of a little girl who catches only glimpses of the violence that exists in her country.

Ingrid de Kok - ‘Our Sharpeville’

Ciaran Carson - ‘Belfast Confetti.’

Meaning

Structure

Imagery

Language

Effect

Sample Exam Question - Part B

Answer EITHER 3(b)i OR 3(b)ii

3 b) (i) Compare how the writer of ‘Belfast Confetti’ explores different violent events from those in ‘Our Sharpeville’.

Use evidence from the poems to support your answer.

You may include material you used to answer 3 a).

3 b) (ii) Compare how the writers of ‘Our Sharpeville’ and one poem of your choice from the ‘Clashes and Collisions’ collection reflect on the effects of violence on society.

Use evidence from the poems to support your answer.

You may include material you used to answer 3(a).

NB - These questions are taken from the June 2011 paper. In the exam, you would have about 30 minutes to complete this question.

Write an answer to this question and email it to me.

Sample Answers‘Our Sharpeville’ featured on the June 2011 ‘Understanding Poetry’ paper. As such, we have sample answers from this exam paper that we can look at.

Read the mark scheme, and then look at the two sample answers. Why did each one get the mark that it did?

Question:

3 a) Explore how the writer presents the violent events in ‘Our Sharpeville.’

Use evidence from the poem to support your answer.

Mark Scheme - Higher Paper

Question 3a) - Maximum 15 marks.AO2: explain how language, structure and form contribute to writers’

presentation of ideas, themes and settings

Band Mark Description

0 0 - No rewardable material.

Band Mark Description

1

(E/D)

1-3 - Generally sound explanation of how the writer conveys his / her attitudes.

- Generally sound, relevant connection made between the presentation of attitudes and the language used.

- Mostly clear, relevant textual reference to support response.

2

(D/C)

4-6 - Sound explanation of how the writer conveys his / her attitudes to create effect.

- Sound, relevant connection made between attitudes and the language used.

- Clear, relevant textual reference to support response.

3

(C/B)

7-9 - Thorough explanation of how the writer conveys his / her attitudes to create effect.

- Sustained, relevant connection made between attitudes and the presentation of ideas.

- Sustained, relevant textual reference to support response.

4

(A)

10-12 - Assured explanation of how the writer conveys attitudes to create effect.

- Relevant connection made between attitudes and the presentation of ideas.

- Pertinent textual reference to support response.

5

(A*)

13-15 - Perceptive explanation of how the writer uses attitudes to create effect.

- Discriminating, relevant connection made between attitudes and the presentation of ideas.

- Convincing, relevant textual reference to support reponse.

Answer A

Ingrid de Kok uses the viewpoint of a little girl to show how the violent events shattered the innocence of the town and its people.

The violence is presented as having steadily built up until it shatters the town: ‘their chanting foreign and familiar like the call and answer of road gans across the veld, building hot arteries.’

The oxymoron ‘foreign and familiar’ shows how and where the violence came from. These people can be treated as foreigners even though their culture has been in Sharpeville for centuries, so everyone should be familiar with them yet there are two contrasting views about them which lead to violence. Anger is also building up as the people are ‘building hot arteries.’ An artery is what carries the blood around your body. it is part of your lifeline but the metaphor of hot arteries shows that the blood is boiling, ready to rage.

Rage, anger and conflict contrast directly with the little girl who is ‘playing hopscotch,’ the two ideas cannot seem to fit together. A child is innocent, she has done no serious harm in the world, yet seh sees the minors roar past. The innocent girl seems to be about to get caught in the conflict and her naive interpretation of what the miners might be shows how she is unwittingly about to witness conflict:

‘I ran to the gate to watch them passAnd it seemed a great caravanMoving across the desert to an oasis.;

The ideal interpretation that the girl has of the miners shows how violence does not make sense to the innocent and should not happen in the perfect world from the “Bible” stories.

Ingrid de Kok uses the little girl’s grandmother to show how the violence is being accepted by the society which she lives in.

“Then my grandmother called from behind the front doorher voice a stiff broom over the steps:“Come inside; they do things to little girls.”

A grandmother is supposed to be wise and kind but de Kok uses this short little paragraph to destroy the ideal interpretation that the young girl has built up. By using only one short sentence de Kok shows how quickly innocence is lost. The grandmother is the antithesis of what she should be as she lies to her grandchild and shows that the society in Sharpeville couldn’t care less about the violent acts against the miners, in fact they approve of them.

Overall, the violent events are presented through a little girl who has her ideal world shattered and her innocence lost as she realises she lives in a society which approves the violent actions.

3 b) (i) Compare how the writer of ‘Belfast Confetti’ explores different violent events from those in ‘Our Sharpeville’.

Use evidence from the poems to support your answer.

What the examiner gave it - 14/15, Band 5.Please note that because this is a higher paper, the marks available are between A* and D. If the candidate performed at the same level across the whole paper, they would be looking at a very secure grade A*.

The examiner said: “Candidate has perceptive overview of the poem and attitudes conveyed, with discriminating use of evidence. Securely in band 5.”

You may include material you used to answer 3 a).

Question 3b) - maximum 15 marks.

A03: Make comparisons and explain links between two texts.

Band Mark Description

0 0 - No rewardable material.

1

(E/D)

1-3 - Generally sound comparisons and links.

- Some clear evaluation of the different ways of expressing meaning and achieving effects.

- Selection of examples is mostly appropriate; shows some support of the

points being made.

2

(D/C)

4-6 - Sound comparisons and links.

- Some clear evaluation of the different ways of expressing meaning and achieving effects.

- Selection of examples is appropriate; shows some support of the points

being made.

3

(C/B)

7-9 - Specific and detailed comparisons and links.

- Developed evaluation of the different ways of expressing meaning and achieving effects.

- Selection of examples is detailed, appropriate and supports the points

being made.

4

(A)

10-12 - Assured comparisons and links.

- Pertinent evaluation of the different ways of expressing meaning and

achieving effects. - Selection of examples is assured, appropriate and supports the pointsbeing made.

Band Mark Description

5

(A*)

13-15 - Discriminating comparisons and links showing insight.

- Perceptive evaluation of the different ways of expressing meaning and achieving effects.

- Selection of examples is discriminating and fully supports the points

being made.

Both Ingrid de Kok and Ciaran Carson explore violent events which happen in their home but de Kok explores her events through the eyes of a child whilst Carson shows his violent events and the disruption caused by them using an extended metaphor.

In ‘Belfast Confetti’ Carson uses an extended metaphor of punctuation to resemble the fighting going on in his town.

“Itself an asterisk on the map. This hyphenated line, a burst

of rapid fire...”

The punctuation shows how the fighting has caused disruption and chaos, reading the poem itself is difficult and normal punctuation disrupts and cuts out any flow in the poem. The metaphor also shows how the chaos caused by the fighting is confusing the narrator - “an asterisk on the map” - even he is confused in his own streets.

Ingrid de Kok uses universally known images an language to make “Our Sharpeville” open to everyone as a message against the violence.

“I remembered from my Sunday school book:

olive trees, a deep jade pool”

An olive branch is a sign of peace and in this ideal interpretation of the events de Kok tries to give the message to a universal audience. An olive branch should have been used as a message of peace to the miners instead of killing them and turning them into people who might ‘tempt us across wellswept streets.’ This sibilance used by her immediately contrasts with the “olive trees” as it turns the miners into sinister enemies.

In “Belfast Confetti” Carson shows the impact that violence is having on his own city.

“I know this labyrinth so well - Balaclava, Raglan, Inkerman,

Odessa Street.”

In describing his city as a ‘labyrinth,’ Carson shows how the violence has turned his city against him. He is stuck in a place which is his own and he cannot get out of. Also the names of the streets, such as “Raglan, Inkerman” are names of famous battles during the Crimean War. Carson is suggesting that the fight has lasted so long it has ingrained itself into Belfast streets and cannot get out.

Ingrid de Kok uses pronouns such as ‘our’ to show how the violence has separated a town into two sections. “Our Sharpeville” is the title of her poem and it immediately shows how people view their town. “Our” can be used to include people but in this case it separates the different groups in society apart, alienating them and causing conflict to arise.

Overall Carson and de Kok both express violence that occurs in people’s homes but Carson shows how it turns against everyone in society whilst de Kok shows how it separates groups, the universal Bible imagery turns into an “our” and a them, described as ‘maulers of children.’

What the examiner gave it - 15/15, Band 5.Please note that because this is a higher paper, the marks available are between A* and D. If the candidate performed at the same level across the whole paper, they would be looking at a very secure grade A*.

The examiner said: “An excellent response, with discriminating comparisons and links throughout. Evidence used is perceptive and wide-ranging. Top of Band 5.”